Lay Down My Life For You
by WizMonCruWil
Summary: "Bellatrix's expression was difficult to read in that moment. She appeared all at once curious, amused, and even... impressed. But that last one couldn't be right; only the Dark Lord seemed to impress Bellatrix Lestrange. "You really are a blood traitor, aren't you?"" What if Ron had been taken instead of Hermione at Malfoy Manor? Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: I Would Gladly

**Chapter 1: I Would. Gladly.**

"Wait!" Bellatrix Lestrange snapped sharply, as the Snatchers made to take away the prisoners to the cellar of Malfoy Manor. "All except... except for the Mudblood."

Greyback gave a grunt of pleasure.

"NO!" Ron Weasley bellowed. "You can have me, keep me!"

He half expected Bellatrix to slap him across the face or silence him in some other fashion. Bellatrix never liked being upstaged, and she certainly never liked being told what to do by anyone other than Voldemort. But, instead, the wild Death Eater peered at Ron. And then, quite suddenly, she began to laugh.

"You would give your life... for _that_?" And she pointed her wand sharply at Hermione, the tip bobbling a little before its target. "A Mudblood?"

Ron felt Hermione's eyes swivel to his. He could feel the shock there, the fear begging him to be quiet and not draw any more attention to himself, the wondering if he really...

"I would," Ron testified solemnly. "And gladly."

Bellatrix's expression was difficult to read in that moment. She appeared all at once curious, amused, and even... impressed. But that last one couldn't be right; only the Dark Lord seemed to impress Bellatrix Lestrange.

"You really are a blood traitor, aren't you?" Another thought struck her. "Oh, this is just precious... the Weasley brat has fallen in love with the Mudblood!" Greyback and even the Malfoys roared with laughter; however, Draco remained oddly subdued. "Very well, blood traitor. I shall have you first."

"No, Ron! I can't let you do this!" Hermione trembled desperately.

Ron's gaze was even. "And I can't let you die..." he whispered simply.

"But, if you do this, then _you_ will die!"

"Hey: it's gonna be all right." And he sent her that easy smile that made Hermione's stomach do flip-flops.

Procuring a silver knife, Bellatrix cut Ron free from the others (in the process unbinding Harry and Hermione from each other) and forced him into a standing position. Pinning the boy's arms sharply to his side, she spun him around and dragged him back into the center of the room, as Greyback began to tug Harry and Hermione out of the drawing room and towards the cellar.

Ron's gaze locked with that of a disbelieving Hermione. She appeared the most terrified he had ever seen her. He had actually done it. Sacrificed himself for her. It was now or never... she might never get another chance...

"I LOVE YOU!" she cried out desperately.

Ron just nodded gently. "I know. I love you, too."

Then, several things happened at once. Hermione sent a well-placed elbow into Greyback's face. He roared in angry pain and loosened his grip enough for her to leap forward and run for Ron.

"Stop her!" Greyback growled, but as he made to lunge, Harry sent his heel back right into Greyback's crotch. The werewolf howled in pain and fell to his knees, sweet spot throbbing.

Bellatrix stiffened, wand pointed, but Hermione simply threw herself at Ron, cradled his face in her hands and kissed him - a long, slow, sensuous kiss that parted his lips. A kiss to tell him all she felt that she could not put into words. A kiss to give him strength. And Ron had never hated Bellatrix Lestrange more in that moment, for were it not for her, he would wrap his arms around the woman he loved and kiss her back good and proper.

"Come here, ya little -" Then Greyback had Hermione by the hair and he was yanking her and Ron apart.

"NO!" Hermione screamed, thrashing in the grasp, tears splashing down her front. "Ron! _Ron_!"

Ron's eyes locked with Harry, and they silently communicated. _Take care of her, you understand?_

 _On my honor._

Ron was swiveled around again, the pressure of Hermione's mouth still tingling. Staring down Bellatrix as she forced him to his knees, Ron all at once began to laugh. He was smiling, beaming, almost.

Bellatrix's one eye twitched. "What are you smirking at, boy?" she screeched.

But Ron felt that with Hermione's goodbye kiss, he was invincible. And so it was with a bravado he did not know he possessed that made him look the evil sorceress in the eye and say, "Do your worst, bitch."

"With pleasure," she growled.

And the torture began.

* * *

Harry and Hermione were thrown to the cellar floor by Greyback.

"I'll be coming back for you, dearie," Greyback promised lecherously. And his heavy trod thudded up the stairs.

Harry grasped Hermione's hand and squeezed it. "He won't have you. Not on my watch."

"Never!" Hermione vowed briefly. "Only Ron will." Realizing what she said, she blushed pink. Harry just smiled, trying to give her courage.

"You both have my blessing. We'll get him out, Hermione. I promise."

Just then, there was a bellow from above that sent Hermione's heart plummeting into the depths of her stomach. And made her lose all composure.

"RON!" She ran for the barred door and rattled the unyielding metal desperately. "Ron! Ron!"

Harry rushed to her side. "No! Hermione! Shut up, we have to come up with a plan..."

"Ron! Ron!"

Though a little out of a focus, Bellatrix's voice could be made out just well enough from one story above. "I grant your wish to spare your little mate, blood traitor, and this is how you repay me? With _lies_! CRUCIO!"

Ron's roars of pain sent convulsions through Hermione's body, almost like electric shocks. For Ron's grief was her grief. Ron's pain was her pain... "Ron! Ron! ROOOOONNNNNN!"

Harry was digging through the beaded bag frantically, doing things that made no sense: shaking a Snitch, talking to a shard of mirror. Hermione felt she was at least being more productive, running her fingers along the walls as she searched for a secret exit, rattling the bars, pounding the bricks with her fist, half-sobbing.

"When were you in my fault at Gringotts? Where did you get this sword? Tell me the truth, blood traitor, or I will call up your disgusting mate and make you watch as she dies!"

"You can have... anything you want. Just... don't harm my Hermione!" Hermione's heart briefly alighted when she heard Ron refer to her as _his_.

"The truth, then, quickly now! Where did you get this sword? CRUCIO!"

Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, sobbing. "I can't lose him, Harry, I just can't! I can't..."

Harry could only hold her and rock her, as his mind struggled to find a loophole to a problem that appeared unsolvable.

Then, voices pinged out into the darkness.

"Harry?"

"Hermione?"

"Luna? Dean?"

A sharp CRACK! made everyone jump and Harry saw a little creature that he had never expected to see.

"DOBBY?!"

* * *

He was on fire. Burning. He had expected his body to be alight like this at the time when he finally made sweet, tender love to Hermione.

Only this kind of heat was not of pleasure, but of pain. Not from heaven, but from hell.

Even so, a warmth of a much more soothing kind had settled in the pit of Ron's stomach, in his heart, fueled by Hermione's kiss. A warmth at the knowledge that she was safe, and that all that either of them had wanted to say had at least been said. Nothing was unspoken.

Ron contorted and twisted as he yelled in agony. As long as Hermione was safe, he no longer cared what happened to him. All he had to do was keep Bellatrix distracted, lie convincingly enough so that she would leave the woman he loved alone. If he died in that process, so be it. Despite all the evil the locket had whispered in his ear, he knew he could trust Harry to take care of Hermione...

But then, he heard a plaintive cry. A woman's voice - a voice that was the sweetest sound he had ever known, calling his name. "Ron! RON!"

And with that, Ron felt his strength renewed. He had to survive. To kiss Hermione again. To tell her he loved her. To marry her. To make love to her in his bed as they both moaned in bliss. To watch her stomach become round and laden with his children - _their_ children, little redheaded Weasley babies.

And so Ron gritted his teeth and rode the pain like a wave. A dangerous gauntlet.

And just thinking about the brilliant witch who had his heart prompted a crazy lie to fall into his head.

"It's not your sword! It's a copy! Just a copy!"

"A likely story!" Bellatrix sneered derisively.

CRACK!

"What was that?" Lucius bellowed as the Cruciatus Curse abruptly stopped. "No, send Wormtail! Make him go and check!"

* * *

Harry and Hermione had jumped Wormtail as soon as he appeared in the door of the cellar. Wresting his wand away, the pair had crept up the stairs and back to the drawing room.

When Hermione saw the sight, she clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sob. Or her sudden urge to vomit. She couldn't decide which impulse was stronger.

Her beloved Ron lay sprawled at Bellatrix's feet. He was bloodied, bruised, looking like a corpse already. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest suggested otherwise.

"I think... we can dispose of the blood traitor," Bellatrix was saying. "Greyback, bring me the Mudblood, and when I'm through with her, you may have your fun with her."

Greyback grinned licentiously, and turned only to find a wand pointed in his face.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry had never cast the Killing Curse before, but this one lifted Greyback of his feet and slammed him into a windowpane. Harry passed the wand to Hermione as she yelled, "Expelliarmus!", disarming Bellatrix and taking her wand.

A fierce duel between the two prisoners and the Malfoy family now began.

"DROP YOUR WANDS!" The skirmish froze. Bellatrix was supporting all of Ron's weight, her eyes wild and desperate as she held a knife to his throat. A move so frantic, it was as though she knew she was losing this game, or was about to lose it, and so she decided to shit all over the board.

"I said _drop them_!" And she pressed the blade into Ron's skin until a sheeny bead of blood appeared. "Or your boyfriend will be skewered like a Muggle pig!" The last was hurled at Hermione.

Harry and Hermione angrily threw down their wands.

"Excellent! Draco, pick them up!"

Draco scuttled to retrieve the wands, his eyes briefly meeting those of his classmates. Hermione glowered at him, Harry's mouth was in a blank line, though the disgust in his eyes was apparent. Could it be a trick of the light, or did Draco's lips move to mouth something like, "I'm sorry"?

"And now," Bellatrix squealed with glee. "To call the Dark Lord!"

The snap came from nowhere, followed by a scream of tumbling metal, drowning out Bellatrix's own shriek as she abandoned Ron to spare her own sorry skin. The chandelier crashed right on top of the poor Weasley boy.

"Ron!" Hermione dove forward, and using all her strength, she dragged her... she-didn't-know-what clear of the wreckage and back towards Harry, who was now sprinting back to their side of the drawing room after Draco Malfoy had practically chucked the surrendered wands back to him. Dobby was standing by the Trio's side.

Harry turned everyone on the spot. There was a flash of silver and time seemed to slow. But then, everyone was mercifully pulled into oblivion, and the gloom of the Manor disappeared, hopefully forever.


	2. Chapter 2: In Your Arms

**Chapter 2: In Your Arms**

Coarse grains of sand tugged at Hermione's ripped jeans as she landed hard on a beach, the salty air of the sea crashing into her nostrils with the force of the waves now lapping up against the shore. Clearing herself of any disorientation, her eyes quickly focused on Ron's body cradled in her embrace. His eyes were shut, and he did not appear to be moving.

"No, no, no, no, no... Ron?"

He coughed in answer, his irises rolling. He was unfocused, slurring, groaning.

"Look at me, look at me, I'm right here!" Hermione caressed his face. "Don't go, stay with me, Ron!" She began to sing to him; Ron had always liked it when she sang: _"There was love all around, but I never heard it singing... no, I never heard it at all, til there was you... There were birds in the sky, but I never saw them winging... no, I never saw them at all, till there was you."_

"My... oh...knee..." Ron croaked.

"What?" Hermione whispered tearfully.

"... You were my new dream."

"And you're mine," Hermione felt her heart seemingly swell and break all at once. Frantically, she heaved Ron to his feet. She staggered under his weight and whipped her head around desperately.

"HARRY! Help me!"

But Harry was sobbing as he held a smaller body in his arms. Her brain unable to focus in on who it was, Hermione simply dragged Ron to the front steps of Shell Cottage, where Harry had instructed Dobby to take the other prisoners of the Manor. Throwing herself against the door, Hermione pounded on it, until a very disheveled Bill opened it.

"What the devil...? Hermione!"

"Bill! Bill! It's Ron! He's hurt! Save him, please!" Hermione was bawling hysterically.

Fleur, still in a nightgown, rushed to her husband's side. Together, they helped Hermione carry Ron into the house.

"'Ermione, take heem to ze first bedroom on your right! Where he stayed with us!"

 _Ron stayed here while he... he was away?_ Hermione thought, as she and Bill hauled Ron into the nearest bedroom and deposited him on the bed. At least it was a safe place. As good a place as any. Instinctively, Hermione crawled onto the bed beside him.

"My poor darling," she whispered, and she cradled Ron's head in her lap, her tears falling like sweet rain onto his upturned face.

"Hermione, I have to strip him to find all the wounds... you might have to leave."

Bill said it as delicately as he could, but he still was struck by Hermione's fierce gaze. She nearly bared her teeth as she clutched Ron closer. "No! I'm staying! I don't give a damn if I see anything, cause I'm looking at my future husband anyway!" She flushed pink at this declaration of marriage, and were she not holding Ron, she likely would have clapped a hand over her mouth, dying of shame.

Bill smiled in understanding at her. "My baby brother is a lucky man, then." And he began to divest an unconscious Ron of all his clothing. Even so, Hermione turned her face away when his nether regions were revealed, but not before she noted appreciatively how Ron wore boxer shorts.

Fleur soon joined the group, and the couple set to work applying Dittany and Healing charms all over Ron's body, removing the chandelier glass from his skin and where it had tangled in his hair. All the while, Hermione rocked Ron, speaking gentle words into his ear. Even in a bizarre sleep, he looked beautiful, and oddly the most at peace she had ever seen him.

How strange. Could someone really love this strongly? Hermione did not know exactly when she had fallen in love with Ron. Only that she loved him, and that was that. She was so engrossed in him, that she only turned her attention away when Harry arrived to report the tragic news: Dobby was dead.

* * *

Slowly, light pierced the darkness. Ron groaned as he beheld the silhouette of a woman, bathed in amber light. She looked like an angel. An angel that bore a striking resemblance to...

"Hermione..."

"Sssh..." Hermione beamed tenderly at him. Ron felt something cool - a washcloth, he reckoned - pressed lightly to his forehead. "It's me, love. I'm here."

His heart exalted at the word of endearment she used, and he only desired to have her say it again, to him and only him, for the rest of his life. "I thought I'd never see you again."

Hermione breathed heavily, the light catching the glisten of tears in her eyes. "Neither did I."

Ron sank back into the pillows. "It was all worth it, then." He was surprised to see Hermione purse her pink lips, shake her head frantically.

"Not this. Nothing is worth this."

"You are," Ron murmured quietly.

She now gaped at him, shook her head again. "You don't mean that..."

"I bloody well _do_ mean it!" And Ron tried to sit up, but winced, forcing Hermione to gently press his chest back into the bedclothes. "I'd go get myself beaten up by that woman again and again for you. Just as long as you were safe and unharmed when I got out."

Hermione was speechless. She caressed a gentle hand over Ron's face, even as with the other, she brought a cup of water to his lips - just one step in many as she lovingly nursed him back to health. "You sacrificed yourself," she whispered. "And you did it... for me?" Though she remembered his reasoning, how he had proclaimed his love for her.

Ron's impossibly blue eyes were smoldering. "I love you," he professed quietly, as if that explained it. And perhaps it did.

Hermione blinked in astonishment. "Well... then I meant what I said, too." And leaning over him, she whispered in his ear. "I love you back. I was _born_ to be with you."

"And the kiss?" Ron croaked, his voice all at once sounding dry. "Did you mean that, too?"

Her mouth hovered over his. "Yes..." Gathering her courage, Hermione bent and sweetly kissed Ron's lips. Instantly, her eyes fluttered closed, and she gave a content like purr into his lips as they opened to her tongue. "Hmmmm..." She felt Ron's arms, weak though they still were, encircle her, and in that moment, Hermione had never felt safer.

Hermione's lips left Ron's after several moments and she began to mouth adoringly along his face and jawline. Impulsively, madly, she hissed, "If we get married, you can't _ever_ do something so stupidly noble again, Ronald Weasley. Or tell me what to do."

Moving her face away, she saw him gaping at her, but his eyes dancing. Had he died? Was this heaven? Blushing furiously, Hermione ran her fingers shyly through her hair's loosening braid.

"Will you marry me, Ron?" she proposed softly.

Ron's smile could have lit up the sun. "Yes, Hermione, I will."


	3. Chapter 3: What Once Was Mine

**Chapter 3: What Once Was Mine**

The green light of Crucio was still flickering like a neon sign behind Ron's eyelids as he sat up frantically in the double bed. Beside him, he felt his wife of ten years, Hermione, shift. Nestled between them, her tiny body curling into Ron's side and warming him, was their six-year-old daughter, Rose, who now stirred sleepily, her eyes - brown, like her mother's - blinking blearily.

"What's wrong, Da-Da?"

There was a further rustling as Hermione roused herself, turned on the nightstand light. She and Ron shared a look with no words, and her gentle, understanding smile calmed Ron's racing heart. Dulled the aches now appearing across his body.

"Rosie, climb over me, and let Mummy see what's wrong with Daddy," Hermione prompted. Ron grinned like an idiot. He adored Hermione's voice whenever she was speaking to their children. She was a natural mother. Had looked bloody sexy and gorgeous both times she had been pregnant. He must have made love to her nearly every day that she was carrying his babies.

Rose and Hermione switched places. Waving her wand, Hermione slowly began to perform an incantation across every spot that her husband indicated there was pain. The aftershocks had deadened in intensity over time, but lingering bursts of pain would always be there. Alongside the dreams. But what made the healing better was Hermione singing a simple song.

 _"Heal what has been hurt... change the Fates' design... save what has been lost... bring back what once was mine... what once was mine..."_

Ron's muscles relaxed and he beamed at his wife with pure love. "You're too good to me, my love."

Craning her face around, Hermione kissed him deeply. "Nonsense. I love you, my hero. And that's that." They both ignored how Rose was giggling at them. Her parents were very much in love, sometimes embarrassingly so. It was very romantic.

And with everything right again, husband and wife and their first-born child fell asleep in bed together.


End file.
